The Scare Contest
by SilverPedals1402
Summary: Rhodey knows that it's really hard to scare Pepper. So he starts a contest to see who can scare her first before Halloween between Happy and himself. But where does Tony come in? *For PercyJacksonLover's Halloween Contest*


**HALLOWEEN! :) Yep, this is my entry to PercyJacksonLover14's Halloween Pepperony Contest thing, so yeah. :P Hope you like it! **

**Disclaimer: IMAA does not belong to me, it belongs to its rightful owners. **

"Halloween is my favorite!" Pepper practically sang as the trio walked to their lockers. "Don't you guys agree?"

Tony shrugged. "Personally, I'm not the person to ask. I'm not big on holidays."

Rhodey laughed. "Says the one throwing a big Halloween party."

Tony elbowed his friend playfully. "Hey, just because I'm not big on the holiday, doesn't mean I'm going to skip out on celebrating on it!"

"Ooh, will there be candy?" Pepper asked, enthusiastically.

Tony laughed. "Yes, Pepper. There will be lots of candy. Just tell me what to buy later on today and it'll be there."

Pepper cheered and gave Tony a quick hug in thanks, before rushing off to her locker to hide her quickly reddening face. When they were left alone, Rhodey smirked and quickly dragged the genius to their lockers to speak in private.

"What's got you all hyped up?" Tony asked, while Rhodey looked to see if anyone was listening.

"So you know how Pepper doesn't scare easily?" Rhodey asked in a low voice.

Tony shrugged, obviously not aware of this fact. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"We're going to have a scare contest! Whoever scares Pepper first, wins!" Rhodey announced. "Just between you and me, and whoever wins gets crowned as The Scare King!"

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Scare King?"

Rhodey sighed. "Fine, the winner gets crowned Scare King and receives $20 from the loser, happy?"

"Actually," Tony confessed, "I'm not going to participate."

Rhodey stared. He honestly thought that Tony would be all for having a contest. Especially where scaring people was involved. "Why not?"

"Pepper said she hates being scared," Tony shrugged as if this was obvious. "I'm sure that's part of why she's hard to scare."

"C'mon, Tony," Rhodey pleaded, "It'll be fun!"

Tony shook his head in disapproval. "Sorry, Rhodey, I just don't feel like scaring Pepper."

"Did I hear something about a contest?" Happy asked, bursting in.

Rhodey groaned. He was trying to keep this contest just between Tony and himself. He especially didn't want Happy to be involved. "No, Happy, you didn't hear anything."

"No, I'm pretty sure that you said that you two were having a contest to see who can scare Pepper first," Happy insisted. "I want in."

"No, it's just between us," Rhodey declared.

Tony shook his head and turned around to get his things out of his locker. "I'm not part of this."

"See?" Happy pointed out. "Now you need me!"

Rhodey groaned and knew he was going to have to give in. "Fine, winner get crowned Scare King. Whoever scares Pepper first from today until Halloween in three days wins, got that?"

"Okay!" Happy said happily as he strolled off swinging his arms.

"What's Happy so happy about?" Pepper asked walking up Tony and Rhodey.

Rhodey jumped and almost yelped when Pepper suddenly walked up. "Pepper! You didn't…hear anything did you?"

"Only something about winning something," Pepper said, shrugging. "You guys having a contest?"

"They are," Tony responded, "not me."

"Weird," Pepper commented, "you love contests."

"Let's just get to class," Rhodey said, even if the warning bell hasn't even rung, hoping that no more questions would be asked.

xXx

It was late Tuesday afternoon, a few hours after school had ended, and Pepper was heading to Rhodey's house to help him on a project. Only ten minutes ago, she received a weird phone call from Rhodey asking for help on a project. It was more random then weird, but it was still strange that Rhodey would ask for her help when he had Tony visiting for the afternoon. Those two were practically inseparable.

When she arrived, she instantly noticed how all the lights in Rhodey's house were turned off. It appeared as if nobody was home. Walking up to the door, she was tempted to call him and ask if he was still home, but figured it be pointless in the end. So she found herself knocking. As soon as she knocked, the door opened up with a creek.

Suspicious now, she stepped into the dark entryway, since she always had this thing with allowing herself into people's homes if their door was open. A bad habit, yes.

Sighing, she flipped on the entryway light and slipped out of her shoes. "Rhodey?"

She earned no response and she began to wonder if Rhodey had meant to tell her that they were at Tony's house or the armory. She could have sworn that he said his house, so where was he? She ventured farther into the house, turning on lights as she did so. Rhodey had mentioned that Roberta had to work late, so she wasn't too worried about waking her up, had she been asleep.

She finally found herself entering the hallway that led to two bedrooms, one being Rhodey and the other being Tony's previous room from when he lived here. Apparently, that was in the process of being changed into an at home office for Roberta, since they already had a guest bedroom. There was an extra door in the hallway that led into a closet.

When she went to flip the switch for the hallway, the light wouldn't turn on. She shrugged and used the light from behind her to make her way smoothly down the hallway.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Pepper didn't even flinch when Rhodey suddenly burst out from the closet door laughing as if he was some evil scientist and flailing his arms out. If that was what he was trying to go for, Tony would have pulled it off way better in her opinion. Though she kept that to herself as she watched Rhodey finish his little "show".

Rhodey was panting by the time he was finished and just stared at Pepper in disbelief. "Seriously? Nothing?"

"Rhodey what are you doing?" Pepper inquired, not scared in the slightest.

Rhodey sighed disappointed. "Darn it! I could have sworn that would have gotten you!"

Pepper smirked. "You know I'm not easy to scare."

"It's not fair," Rhodey pouted.

Pepper should have guessed that Rhodey would have tried to scare her. He did the same thing last year when Halloween finally came around. With the same results, too. Though she had to admit that she hadn't guessed that this was his original intent until she entered this last hallway. But she had her suspicions.

"So," Pepper said, ignored Rhodey's failure, "what's this project you needed help with?"

xXx

It was midafternoon on Wednesday now, and school was just about to be over. Pepper was concentrating on finishing the worksheet before class ended in five minutes. She was so focused, that by the time the bell rang she hadn't realized that she was one of the last ones in the room by the time she looked up. Sighing, she put the worksheet away with only two problems left and grabbed her stuff to go.

The teacher wished her the other two that were still in the room a good day, Pepper gave a wave in response as she followed the others out the door.

"BOO!"

She didn't really know what happened, but suddenly Happy was towering over her and her books and papers were scattered throughout the hallway in a matter of seconds. "Ow…"

"Ha ha!" Happy triumphantly shouted, apparently not realizing that he just knocked Pepper over, "looks like I scared you!"

Pepper rolled her eyes. "No, Happy, you didn't scare me."

"What? No, of course I did," Happy insisted. "You fell over, you were so scared."

"No, she fell over because you rammed into her like a bull."

Pepper looked over to find Tony on his knees as he picked up her fallen books. Her face suddenly went red in embarrassment. "No, no! You don't have to do that, Tony. I'll be fine!" She scrambled over to pick up the rest of it, her hand just barely grazing his.

She squeaked awkwardly and stood up as if she was shocked. "Oops, my bad! I'll just…"

"But you have to admit," Happy boasted before Tony could say anything, "I scared you pretty good. Right, Pepper?"

Tony sighed in exasperation. "Happy, running into somebody doesn't scare them. It hurts them."

"Tony, its fine," Pepper said.

Tony handed over the rest of what she had dropped and pointed towards his locker. "Whatever you say, Pep. I have to grab something from my locker and I'll meet you by the front door, alright?"

Pepper nodded as she arranged her things in her arms as Happy stood by her side. "What do you need Happy?"

"So, I didn't scare you?" he wondered innocently.

Pepper shook her head. "No, Happy, you didn't scare me."

xXx

It was Thursday night, the day before Halloween. She was in her room working on her costume for Tony's party tomorrow. She spent almost two weeks trying to figure out what she was going to be, and in the end she decided to make her own costume. In result, she was going to be a creepy ragdoll with stitches.

It was late, but she was determined to finish her costume before it was time for bed. Her dad was late at work, so he wasn't going to be home anytime soon, so she wasn't concerned about a bed time.

She started working on making the dress she was using for her costume look old and beat up. Sort of like she was left in an attic or garage for too long. She was so focused on what she was doing, that she almost missed it when there was a sudden tap on her window.

She glanced up curiously. Since her dad and she lived in an apartment, she had to wonder if it was intended for her or not. She set aside the dress and dropped her feet to the cold floor. She shivered when the warmth of her bed was gone. The tapping noise on the window turned into a scratching noise.

She peeked out her window curtains to see who was there. Only when she pulled the curtains aside, there was no one there. She wondered how the person had scratched her window when they weren't on the bottom floor…

Just as she was about to leave someone with a bloody looking mask, popped into view while shouting. Pepper stared unamused as the person in front of her window became silent.

She sighed and opened the window. "Seriously, Tony? I thought you said you weren't involved."

It wasn't that she had been scared, it was more like she was very annoyed. Didn't they get the idea that if they wanted to scare her, they were going to have to seriously step up their game.

"I'm not," Tony said, his head popping into view below the other person with the mask, who revealed himself to be Rhodey.

"Wait, what?" Pepper asked, looking closer to realize that Tony was just holding Rhodey up.

"He only dragged me into this," Tony explained. "I don't know why he couldn't have done this on his own."

"So did I scare you?" Rhodey asked hopefully.

Pepper found herself laughing. "Not even close, Rhodey."

"Seriously?" Rhodey demanded once more, almost throwing himself out of Tony's grasp.

Pepper tried looking beyond to two to see how they were pulling all of this off. "Are you guys using the Iron Man boot jets?"

Rhodey nodded proudly. "Yep. It was all my idea."

Pepper didn't fail to notice when Tony rolled his eyes. She couldn't help but laugh.

"What?" Rhodey demanded. "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing," Pepper said, trying to hold in another laugh.

"I can come up with good ideas!" Rhodey exclaimed.

"Then why can't you come up with a good idea to scare me?" Pepper inquired.

xXx

Halloween had finally arrived. Now she just had to wait for school to end so she could go home and get ready for Tony's party. It was currently her free period, giving her plenty of time to do whatever she pleased. Since she and Tony shared a free period again, they generally hung out together on the roof just like when they first met. Though she didn't know where he was currently. She faintly remembers him telling her that he was going to speak to their physics teacher about some outdated book equations or something like that, but she couldn't be sure.

Since she finished all her homework already, she was left with basically nothing to do. She was standing by the edge, looking at the passing cars. She got bored and began counting how many taxi she could see. She got even more bored as soon as the numbers reached the double digits.

She didn't know how, but somehow her mind drifted to a certain blue-eyed genius. Whenever he was near her, she swore that her heart did flips and pounded in her chest so hard, she was worried that one of these days it was going to jump out of her chest. Then her face would turn all red and she'd panic and say the stupidest of things.

Which was why she was kind of worried about Tony's party later on that night. Sure there was going to be other people there, but what if she did something really embarrassing? Tony would see and she'd be so horrified and embarrassed, she could honestly see herself hiding in a closet until the party was over.

Otherwise she'd have to deal with having his blue eyes—those beautiful blue eyes—staring at her. He'd probably laugh at her too with that boyish laugh of his that she loved so much and those soft looking lips…

"What are you smiling about?"

Suddenly Pepper spun around screaming, tripping over her own two feet. She saw an image of Tony in his usual red shirt before she was seeing the floor fast approaching her face. She flung her arms out to catch herself, only to find herself throwing her arms around Tony as they both fell to the floor. She landed roughly on his chest, causing him to grunt upon impact.

Pepper froze as if doing so made time freeze. How stupid clumsy was she? To not only trip over nothing, but to take Tony with her! Then land on him in the process. How embarrassing! She closed her eyes, wishing that she had been thinking clearly and hadn't overreacted to Tony's appearance.

"Idiot," she found herself snapping, "You scared me!"

She opened her eyes to find his own staring at her in surprise, almost as if it was her who startled him. Her gaze travelled from his eyes to his lips then back to his eyes. Her chin rested on his chest, just about the exact spot where his heart implant once laid. Sometimes, despite how horrible it sounded, she missed its comforting hum when he hugged her. Which wasn't very often.

"Um…" Tony said awkwardly. "Are you going to…?"

He didn't need to finish his sentence. Pepper was off of him in a flash, her face heating up and her heart doing flips ten times faster than usual. Maybe it really was going to take a leap out of her chest. She stood up and hugged her arms to her chest as if that would prevent her heart from taking that fatal leap. She sucked hard on her bottom lip and avoided his gaze as he helped himself up.

"Are you okay, Pep?" he asked. "Why are you so embarrassed?"

She wanted to ask him how he wasn't embarrassed or angry that she practically tackled him to the ground. Accident or not. Though when she looked up, she found that he too was red and was avoiding her gaze as well.

"I-I'm fine," she said nodding her head vigorously. "Thanks…"

They stood in awkward silence for several moments. After a few minutes, Tony took a step towards her. She looked up curiously, wondering what he was doing. He was scratching behind his ear as he stopped just in front of her. She didn't know how, but her heart suddenly beat faster.

"Hey, Pep," he finally spoke, "can I…ask you something?"

She bit her lip nervously, feeling the torrent of butterflies in her tummy. "Sure, anything."

"Pepper," he began almost timidly, as he attempted to look her in the eyes, "will you…will you,"

"Yes!" Pepper blurted. She slapped her hands over her mouth as soon as the word escaped her lips. If her face wasn't red before, it was definitely red now.

Tony closed his mouth with a stunned silence. "Yes what?"

She clamped her eyes shut as she blurted out some more through her fingers. "Yes, I'll be your girlfriend!"

Tony took a stunned stop backwards, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to say something, but nothing came out. His eyes were so wide, it was a wonder they didn't fall out.

When she didn't hear a response, she slowly opened her eyes. When she saw Tony stepping away as if he was scared, she realized her mistake. Her lips formed the shape of an 'o' as she felt her face go on fire.

"I mean…I didn't think…I thought you were…!" Pepper shut herself up before she made even more of a fool to herself.

Tony took a deep breath and finally collected himself. "So, does this mean we're dating…?"

The though scared him, knowing how his last relationship ended. Though he promised himself that he wouldn't do that to Pepper. With her he could explain why he couldn't show up and she would understand. He'd find a way to make it work he would.

Even if that wasn't what he'd meant to ask…

"So you were asking me out?" Pepper asked.

"Not really," Tony confessed, "but I've been meaning to…"

Pepper smacked his arm. "Idiot! Choose better wording and body language when you ask a girl a question!"

"Sorry…" Tony apologized. "So, um…Pep, want to…go out…?"

"Duh, that's why I said yes, you genius," Pepper said with a shake of her head. "So, what were you going to ask?"

"I don't remember."

xXx

"Not that I was competing," Tony said as he walked up to Rhodey's locker at the end of the day. "But I scared Pepper first."

Rhodey stared at him. "What!? How?"

Tony shrugged. "I just asked her why she was smiling."

"Wait, that works?" Rhodey demanded. "_That_ is how you scare Pepper?"

"No," Tony laughed, "I was just lucky she was lost in thought."

Rhodey groaned. "I hate you."

"Oh, and I'm dating Pepper now, so…Yeah see you at the party tonight!"

Then Tony walked off, leaving Rhodey behind in his shock.

**First off, I apologize for how long it is...that is what happens when I'm home sick and alone and bored. :) Hooray for me. And sorry if there isn't enough romance or Halloween in it. I tried. I did. :)**

**Fun Fact: _I can't sit normally in chair, you know with both legs on the floor, at all. I have to have at least one of them resting on something like the a bar on the side of the chair at school, however you explain that..._  
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**Hope you guys liked it! I got the idea when PercyJacksonLover14 first posted that there was going to be a contest and I've been so excited to write it. My friend threw a party and I slept over and then I procrastinated all weekend after finding out about the anime Magi. Then I got sick, but apparently getting sick was a good thing. **

**I'll leave before I bore anyone...HUGS AND LOVE! SilverPedals! HAPPY late HALLOWEEN! :D **

**GOOD LUCK to the others who may be participating as well. :)**


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